School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications

Permanent URI for this collection

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1

The “other” Spanish: Methodological issues in the study of speech timing in Chilean Spanish

Reynolds, I ; Maxwell, O ; Wigglesworth, G (International Speech Communication Association (ISCA), 2020-01-01)

This paper is a preliminary account of speech rhythm and some phonological properties of Chilean Spanish in spontaneous dialogues. Different dialects of Spanish have been studied using rhythm metrics measuring the durational variability of vocalic and consonantal intervals. There are, however, methodological issues regarding the segmentation of intervals, often overlooked in previous research, such as the criteria for categorising certain segments into the different intervals and the segmentation of different voice qualities. The present study addresses this gap and compares rhythm metrics obtained using two methods of segmentation based on the available literature. The analyses reveal that a strictly 'acoustic' approach to segmentation of intervals results in slightly inflated metrics. Nevertheless, both methods show there is significant durational interval variability in Chilean Spanish, compared to other dialects of Spanish, that may be connected to phonological properties of the variety.